Conventionally, as a component mounting apparatus and component mounting method of this kind, various ones have been known. As one example of various component mounting apparatuses of this kind, FIG. 18 shows a schematic explanatory view showing a schematic construction of a conventional component mounting apparatus 500 (refer to, for example, Japanese examined Patent Publication No. 2940193).
As shown in FIG. 18, reference numeral 501 denotes a rotary head as one example of a head unit, and a plurality of transfer heads 502 are provided along a circumferential direction of this rotary head 501. Further, each of the transfer heads 502 is provided with a nozzle 503 that is able to releasably suck by vacuum and hold a component P such as an electronic component. The rotary head 501 is also provided with a motor M1 as a driving motor and is able to rotate by being driven by the motor M1. Each nozzle 503 is elevatable in accordance with drive by the motor M1 of the rotary head 501.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 18, the component mounting apparatus 500 is provided with an X-Y table 504 that releasably holds a board 514 on its machine table (not shown) and moves the board 514 in this held state in an illustrated X-axis direction or Y-axis direction, thereby allowing the board to be aligned in a position with the component P held by each nozzle 503 of the rotary head 501. Moreover, the X-Y table 504 is provided with an X-motor MX capable of performing a conveyance operation in the illustrated X-axis direction by driving of the motor, and a Y-motor MY capable of performing a conveyance operation in the illustrated Y-axis direction by driving of this motor.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 18, the component mounting apparatus 500 is provided with a component feed unit 505 that feeds a plurality of components P to be mounted onto the board 514 while allowing the components to be picked up by respective nozzles 503. This component feed unit 505 is also provided with a plurality of parts feeders 508 (only one parts feeder 508 is shown in FIG. 18) such as tape feeders that supply (i.e., feed) a plurality of components P received on a carrier tape while allowing the components to be picked up, and a slide base 506 that moves a table 507 on which the parts feeders 508 are placed together with the parts feeders 508 along the illustrated Y-axis direction. Further, the slide base 506 is provided with a ball screw shaft section 509 arranged in the illustrated Y-axis direction, a nut section (not shown) that is meshed with this ball screw shaft section 509 and fixed to a lower surface of the table 507, and a motor M2 that rotatively drives the ball screw shaft section 509 around its axial center. With this arrangement, the table 507 can be moved so as to advance and retreat along the illustrated Y-axis direction by rotatively driving the ball screw shaft section 509 by the motor M2 on the slide base 506, and component P of desired parts feeder 508 can be stopped in a pickup position of the nozzle 503.
Moreover, the component mounting apparatus 500 is provided with a vacuum unit 510, and the vacuum unit 510 communicates with each of the nozzles 503 through a tube 511. Moreover, a solenoid valve 512 is provided partway on the tube 511, and by turning on and off this solenoid valve 512, the component P can be held by vacuum suction and released from a held state at a tip of nozzle 503.
Moreover, the component mounting apparatus 500 is further provided with a control unit 513 that executes centralized control of the motor M1 for motion control of the rotary head 501, control of the vacuum unit 510 and the solenoid valve 512, control of the motors MX and MY for motion control of the X-Y table 504, and control of the motor M2 for motion control of the component feed unit 505 while correlating these motions to one another. Operations of constituent sections of the component mounting apparatus 500 are controlled by the control unit 513, thereby executing a component mounting operation of making the rotary head 501 suck by vacuum, hold and pick up a component P from the parts feeder 508 by use of nozzle 503 while rotating, then relatively transferring this component P onto the board 514, releasing holding of this component by releasing a vacuum suction state, and mounting the component P onto the board 514. As with the control unit 513 of the component mounting apparatus 500, a control system for intensively executing control of operations of a plurality of constituent sections by one control unit is generally called a “centralized control system”.
In recent years, motion control in each constituent section of a component mounting apparatus has been advanced and complicated in accordance with diversification of component mounting and improvement in accuracy of component mounting, and the control unit 513 is required to be able to execute advanced complicated control also in the component mounting apparatus 500 that adopts the aforementioned centralized control system.
However, in accordance with advancement and complication of control in component mounting, despite the fact that it is most efficient to confirm fundamental operations, operational performances and the like of individual constituent sections at an early stage and thereafter confirm control performance of the entire component mounting apparatus in an apparatus developmental process, and the centralized control system is adopted as described above. Therefore, it is difficult to separate control software and the like for each of the individual constituent sections in the control unit 513, and this disadvantageously becomes a factor for hindering shortening of a developmental period. As described above, unless the developmental period can be shortened, it becomes impossible to provide apparatuses that can cope with a variety of needs demanded by users of the component mounting apparatuses in a short period.
Moreover, there is no small number of cases where the constituent sections of the component mounting apparatus 500 are concurrently controlled in parallel with one another. In such a case, control throughput of the control unit 513 increases in accordance with advancement and complication of control as described above, thereby possibly failing in improving processing speed and sometimes causing a reduction in control speed and a variation in the control speed. This disadvantageously becomes a factor for hindering improvement of controllability during component mounting.